Fishermen see signs of slick off Kimberley
Professional fishermen off the Kimberley coast have reported sick and injured turtles and globules of yellow gunk in waters many nautical miles south of the West Atlas oil spill.
The part-owner of a fishing vessel working in the area, who did not want her name published, said reports were coming in from the vessel of a heavy chemical smell, globules of yellow gunk and wildlife coated in an oily sheen.
Oil has been spewing from the stricken West Atlas oil rig in the Timor Sea since August 21. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has been spraying dispersants on the oil in a bid to break up the toxic slick. Up to 500,000 litres of oil is estimated to be spilling into the ocean from the rig every day.
The part-owner said her fishing vessel had taken water samples for analysis and photos of the unusual oily gunk.
"The skipper has told me via the sat phone that the situation out there is very concerning," she said.
"A few days ago there was a film of oil as far as the eye could see and yellow globules in the water from the dispersant that was being sprayed.
"We have a colleague who fishes out of Darwin. He fishes the top end of the Kimberley. He was saying the same thing, they could smell and taste this chemical smell and he was seeing sick fish and turtles."
This morning Premier Colin Barnett said the State was making contingency plans to deal with the possibility of the slick reaching the WA coast.
He said the spill was a lesson for the Federal and State government to implement a quicker response to deal with such incidents because unlike the Mexican Gulf, offshore oil rigs around Australia were just kilometres away.
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
not good at alll....
not good at alll....
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
Here it is blowout on W
Here it is
blowout on W Atlas Timor Sea
Paully
Posts: 3246
Date Joined: 15/08/09
Tragic
I would have thought there would have been other plans in place when something such as this happens and not have it take so long to be looked at. Good pics those.
sunshine
Posts: 2696
Date Joined: 03/03/09
BOPS ??????
What the hell is wrong with the BOPS and why hasn't it been activated ???
kane
Posts: 1752
Date Joined: 07/12/08
Closing the BOP wont do anything.
Its coming from below the bop, probably a bad cement job. The BOP on a jack up is up on the rig, not on the sea floor like on a floater.
I can also verify that the oil company behind this, not Seadrill but the operator PTTEP are about as dodgy as you can get...how do i know this...because we are also drilling for PTTEP in the dulf of Thailand. THEY ARE DODGY!
What confuses me is being that they are a Thai oil company WTF are they doing in Australia in the first place!
As for the other comment below about setting fire to it, i think that is the best outcome, im pretty sure that is what everyone is hoping for, Seadrill will get a new rig on insurance, itll stop the slick and can continue to burn untill the well expires....
On the other hand im sure PTTEP probably dont want it set alight due to them being on top of their riser platform with god knows how many wells running through it...
And did i mention they are DODGY
Gooooone Fishin!
Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
That's what I am wondering sunshine
There seems to be a few mixed stories coming out.
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DhuBoi
Posts: 896
Date Joined: 25/05/09
Typical government bodies
Typical government bodies couldnt give a fark about the environment . Are they thick in the head no environment NO MONEY NO LIFE ?? these waters are in pristine conditions and yet agian being destroyed by poor management , and now they want to let the gas project go through, just makes me sad.
living is fishing
Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
RE The Gas project going through
I am not sure what your point is regarding the gas project. There are two totally different kettle of fish there.
I hope people havn't had the wool pulled over your eyes by Bob Brown and Rachel Seiwert. They also want to create fishing massive free zones all over Australia.
These "fact stretchers" continue to state that Barrow Island is a global "ark". But they then state that they want "Noah" to abandon ship. The only reason that Barrow is home to so many rare species is that it is Australia’s biggest oil field - and has been for 40 odd years.
Mr Brown and Senator Siewert know full well that native fauna on other islands off the Pilbara coast have been destroyed by the invasion of feral animals and that efforts by various governments to re-populate some of those islands have failed because their is simply not enough funding to protect them.
So who is going to pay the tens of millions that will be required to protect Barrow Island if Chevron and its partners are not there.
The Greens have also created a problem form themselves with their insistence that the Gorgon project must be brought to the mainland. This suggests that future LNG projects planned for development on the Western Australian mainland will gain their full support.
However, this flies on the face of their previous protests over the development of LNG projects on the Burrup Peninsula and the proposed Kimberley LNG Hub.
It will be most interesting to see what stance they take in the future when the environmental process is in full swing for the proposed $35 billion Wheatstone LNG project plant, which is planned to be built near Onslow.
I also find it scandalous that they preach anti development of resources, but fly all over the place in fuel burning jets and drive fuel hungry cars all over the place.
If they were serious they would move into a cave and send out their innacurate media releases on papyrus and via carrier pigeon.
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Blackbetty-50
Posts: 96
Date Joined: 17/08/07
Bad Politics
Why do our piss-weak pollies let these cowboy oil companies operate without the proper safe guards in place ????? The state and federal Government need to fix this disaster and fast. Our ILLUSTRIOUS Premier Mr Barnett stated this morning that the government were making contingency plans to deal with this little problem. Wake up dickhead your just a little late Colin !!! What have these dim-wits been doing since the 21st of August ????????????? Are these fools still on their winter break or just don't give a shit because this is going to cost them some big bucks.
To the state and federal poor excuses for politicians it is well and truly time to act on this disaster. It would be really good if you clowns could put some decent guide lines in place for these oil companies to follow. It is obvious the Government is not tough enough when letting oil companies operate in Australian waters, you would think something as simple as a floatation boom to surround the oil well would be a start in the process in controlling this type of disaster. Surely this would not break the bank and I'm sure the earlier something is done the better it would be for the environment. I know this is only common sense, but if you pollies try it you may see how easy it is.
I thought the Labour Party were a bunch of drongos, but this mob are no better. We live in hope that one day we might get some pollies who can do the job and actually do the right thing for the state and the people who live here, fingers crossed.
DhuBoi
Posts: 896
Date Joined: 25/05/09
yeh but its not just state
yeh but its not just state goverments mate , this is a national disaster !! I dont See rudd or any of them dickheads doing anything about , but i totally agree with its disgusting ! as i said before all they think about is the MONEY !! POLICTICS ARE dickheds and they think they are highly educated ?
living is fishing
thesupervisor
Posts: 1136
Date Joined: 10/06/09
it would be better for the
it would be better for the enviroment if they lit it up stuff there expensive rig
getting the bottom line final answer from a bunch of blokes that use false names and put smiley faces at the end of paragraphs is not the best place in the world to get the information you seek.
joe amato
Posts: 731
Date Joined: 21/12/08
very disgraceful
why aint the goverment ,the authorities who deal with this and all the enviromental groups,not acting sooner,what disgrace and disaster happenig,in australia,any other country would of sorted it out sooner,and why isnt america,our so called allie stepping in with,there experties?australia helps out america and our allies when asked..........
Highlander
Posts: 151
Date Joined: 02/07/09
Good comments Colin, another
Good comments Colin, another reason that Barrow Island is a success, is because of the very high standards that are implemented on the island so that none or very little environmental damage is done.
Jim.
fishing, that used to be free!!!!
Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
Spot on Highlander
It is interesting that Ms Seiwert and Mr Brown forgot to mention that the oil and companies that have operated the Barrow Island oil fields for the past 40 odd years have received numerous international environmental awards - some of them from their compatriats - for the work they have done there.
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Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
remember many things happen,
remember many things happen, and many things will continue to happen without media knowledge.
Gorgan gas project was going to go ahead over 12 months ago, the Major players in the project had already committed huge amounts of money to the project irraspective of enviro approval.
not everything is as it seems. :)
Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
Unfortunately the Gorgon Project has been stuck in "red tape"
for many years. A prime example is the recent approval of development activities on Barrow Island. The project had previously received approvals for that activity, but due to a decision to increase the number of LNG production trains by one, they had to again go through nearly three years of environmental approvals, when in reality the addition of the extra train made no difference to the originally agreed environmental approvals. It is well known internationally that WA - and Australia - have one of the worst beauracricies regarding project approval around the world.
We have missed out on thousands of new job opportunities and billions in export revenue because of the issue with "red tape". The current government says it is going to sort the problem out, but so has every other government before it.
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Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
I went through some of our company's magazines awhile back and
came across an article dated 25 years previous suggesting Gorgon was about to be developed. It has been a long, drawn out event, held back by technical issues, global financial crisis - and most of all "red tape".
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HuggyB
Posts: 2515
Date Joined: 03/08/08
Yes indeed Colin
I recently had to dig through our archives at work to get some old Gorgon quotes out so we can re-quote the work. Some of them were 10 years old. Its been there or thereabouts 3 or 4 times now.
The Terrorist - coming to a fishing spot near you.........
Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
Lol I know exactly what you mean Huggy
There are still people who think it is not going to happen.
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UncutTriggerInWA
Posts: 2692
Date Joined: 05/09/08
many small incidents add up so think about it
The reports coming out are mostly bollucks and driven by green freaks IMO. From what I am seeing there is a lot of effort being put in here to bring this situation under control. If it was a real disaster then the world press would have got hold of this and run with it. Sure; we don't want ANY spills but there needs to be a risk assessment buildt into any project and I am sure that is the case with the current planned projects and the problem we have with the current spill.
Frankly, the combined impact of the every-day oil and fuel spills emanating from poorly maintained fishing boats probably far outweighs anything that is going on up north at the moment and at least the drilling companies give a shit about cleaning up after themselves.
Vince.
Work smart and fish often.
Member and die-hard supporter of the mighty West Coast Eagles.
Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
That is very true Vince
In fact there is far more oil "spilled" by natural leakage from the seafloor than is spilled from any oil and gas operation in the world.
From my understanding (and all the facts have not been revealed), this may have been caused by a problem with the rig, but more a natural problem with the reservoir they were drilling into. (A quick lesson here - oil and gas are contained in reservoir rocks - generally sandstones - where they have pooled over thousands of years. Oil explorers drill into these reservoirs to bring the oil and gas to the surface. On a frequent basis, earth movements may cause a reservoir to crack and the oil or gas/or both may seep to the surface).
A couple of facts that have been left out of various reports - the oil leaking from teh field is mostly condensate - which is an extremely light oil that evaporates very quickly, one of the world's leading well control companies is working to stop the leak, PTTEP, the operator of the well, - is Thailand-based company which has only recently.
It is highly likely that the "oily gunk" spotted by fisherman is largely made up of the dispersants that have been sprayed onto the leak.
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wopjrb
Posts: 1407
Date Joined: 05/03/09
bloody oil everywhere
wheres the bloody boss someone fix the f*@#$%^&*en thing it f*&@#$%^en up the fishin!
Baron Custom
Posts: 112
Date Joined: 04/09/09
NEVER TRUST THE GOVERNMENT
What government were are to be trusted ?.......
The biggest crook's on the planet... ALL ABOUT MONEY
NEVER TRUST ANY GOVERNMENT
grayzeee
Posts: 2283
Date Joined: 09/07/09
as far as i'm concerned ,
as far as i'm concerned , any man made oil slick such as this is a disaster
there's no playing it down , saying it's ok because there are some poorly maintained boats do worse <???
it's terrible
no two ways about it
If I spent half as long fishing , as I do reading this bloody forum , I'd be twice the fisherman I am.
Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
Couldn't agree more grayzee
It is a crap look and shouldn't have happened.
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